


Even in Death

by Rogue of Heart (Akumeoi)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canonical Character Death, F/M, Internal Monologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-07
Updated: 2012-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:25:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2031834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Rogue%20of%20Heart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dead!Nepeta muses on her reasons for existing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Even in Death

Your name is NEPETA LEIJON, and you are DEAD.

This isn't news. You've been dead for a while now; Gamzee killed you about half a sweep ago. You took up residence in a dream bubble (where else could you have gone?) and you would have stayed there if the asteroid carrying the remainder of your living friends hadn't passed through. You might not even have noticed that if Karkat hadn't been standing on the deck.

You'd seen a few dead Karkats by then, but most of them had been but pale shadows of the Karkat you had known and loved so much. Most of them just wanted to be alone to wallow in their misery, and in their ultimate failure - dying. You didn't blame them. But without the fire, the anger, the rage that had driven their living selves, they were so unbearably sad that you couldn't stand to be around them.

So you had left them each in turn - to the auspices of other dead Nepetas, or to the treacherous embraces of the dead Terezis most of them were still chasing.

Seeing flesh-and-blood Karkat, right in front of you, made your heart purr. He was so grumpy and warm and _alive_. He was yelling at Dave, and didn't see you, but you didn't care.

That's when you decided to follow him.

Well, not him, his meteor. You weren't planning on haunting him. In face, you weren't sure _what_ you wanted from him. Talking to him would make him angry(er) and you sad(er). You didn't need to reconcile with him - you understood him just as well as you always had. And besides, you were content to simply be in his presence, watching him live, argue, rant, complain, and live, and live, and _live_.

That's when you realised your purpose. The reason you'd died. You didn't think you could die any more than you already had, so you must have a reason for still lingering there.

Your duty was to protect Karkat.

If he were menaced by a dead Vriska, you would warn him.

If he decided to fight Dave, you would stop him, and barring your success, tend to him.

If he were surprised by a death-dealing Gamzee, you would bring sopor slime to him.

If he were knocked off the asteroid, you would drag it back to him.

And if he were attacked by Jack Noir, you would do your best to save him, or burst your dead little heart trying.

Because you could not, would not, _could not_ bear to watch another Karkat die.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspiration [[X](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rqhWrFeeA8)]


End file.
